Sections 4 and 5 deal with the state’s open data practices. “Open data” is a term for proactively making information available, rather than waiting for it to be requested.

The legislation wouldn’t represent a dramatic shift as much as another step in the direction in which the state’s been moving already.

The state has been upping its open-data game since 2014 when Governor Dannel P. Malloy issued executive order 39, which established state’s online data portal at data.ct.gov. A stated purpose of this bill is to codify the provisions in that executive order.

The bill would require executive branch agencies to compile an inventory of “high-value” data sets, and have a plan for making its data public. The executive order from 2014 called for agencies to submit “initial data sets.”

The high-value data are defined as either:

Being “critical to the operation of an agency;”

Being able to “increase executive branch agency accountability and responsiveness;”

Improving “public knowledge of the executive branch agency and its operations;”

Furthering “the core mission of the executive branch agency;”

Creating “economic opportunity;”

Being “frequently requested by the public;” or

Responding “to a need and demand as identified by the agency through public consultation.”

The data plans would be up to each agency to devise. In addition to releasing data that’s open to the public in its current form, agencies would have to include plans for publishing data that includes private information that can be removed.

Jake is a former managing editor of The Ridgefield Press, a Hersam Acorn newspaper. He worked for the community newspaper chain as a reporter and editor for five years before joining the Mirror staff. He studied professional writing at Western Connecticut State University and is a graduate student in software engineering at Harvard Extension School.